Preface Chobits is a classic manga/anime that has seemingly lost its popularity over the years. While still well known it is not as revered as it once was in the mid to late2000s nor are many new fans seeking it out. I believe this is the case in due part to the anime. Despite my own appreciation of the adaption it suffers from meandering pacing and early digital animation. Regardless I liked it when I watched it in 2016 5 years ago as of writing. Still I was curious as to how the original manga held up. For what its worth I was a big fan of the anime and wanted to see if the manga could do it even better. Having now read it I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Chobits mangaeven more than the anime. Finding a Place in the World of SciFi Scifi was all the rage during the 1990s in both halves of the world. In the Western hemisphere The Matrix made a mainstream audience question the validity of their own existence Jurassic Park bought dinosaurs back to life through genetic mutation and the Japanese pop culture icon Godzilla was bastardized in the American selftitled Godzilla. The same was true in Japan scifi had been booming. With the rise of Mobile Suit Gundam and Akira a decade prior the 1990s biggest titles were dominated by scifi themes. Perhaps the most notableand most vital to Chobitswas Mamoru Oshiis 1995 film Ghost in the Shell which explored robotic augmentation the human soul and the ties between the two. The film is smothered in a dark and foreboding atmosphere one that is quite uncomfortable. In contrast Chobits entered the scene five years later at the tail end of the scifi craze as a tonal departure from the cynical and somber scifi set by Ghost in the Shell and its contemporaries. While Chobits explores similar ideas such as the existence of a human soul in a robotic body it stands apart from the rest in its supporting genres: Slice of life romance drama and comedy. Rather than a bleak examination of whether a character has a human soul the story of Chobits follows the blossoming relationship between a human and his persocom this worlds version of a robot. In tone the story has blotches of darker plot points but these moments often come across as tender rather than oppressive. Reading Chobits is often fun pleasant and joyful ways I would never describe most of the scifi that preceded it. Without abandoning the questions that make scifi specifically about robots compelling Chobits is far more digestible. On the contrary those questions are served in a way that is more fun to engage with. This is highlighted in the supporting cast who manage to be fairly endearing in both characterization and their individual stories. Its goofy antics might be a might much for a reader thats looking for a more straightfaced take on scifi but for other readers Chobits lighthearted nature might be the perfect way to experience these kinds of themes. On the whole Chobits is quite palatable in the ways it communicates its ideas to the reader. In that sense I think thats why it was so successful at the time that it released. Compared to what came before it was a breath of fresh air. It proved that this type of story can have different inflections. Since then stories about robots and romance have become somewhat more available but despite its declining uniqueness I still think Chobits has a place in scifi manga. Technological Limitations One of my favorite things about Chobits and something that sets it apart from a lot of other stories about robots is the timeframe of its technology. Its fairly uncommon to find a story about robots that are far from perfection. Usually robots are portrayed as nearperfect with maybe a single major flaw to create a narrative. Comparatively the persocoms of Chobits are primitive. They seem humanlike but the manga often reminds us that their programming is far from a human mind. Their emotions thoughts and personalities are all programmed and by extension not real. A perfect example is the laptop persocom Plum. Her personality is overtly energetic but that is only because she was programmed that way by her owner. For as loud as her personality is it is just as simple. She is devoid of complex emotion or thoughtseven more so than fullsized persocoms. She never expresses worry sadness or any other negative emotion because she wasnt programmed with those emotions in mind. Even the more complex persocoms only express an emotion in the sense that their programming determines how they feel. Unlike similar stories persocoms do not have emotion comparable to humansthat much is directly stated. It isnt a question that leaves room for interpretation the emotions of persocoms even Chobits are mere programming. Instead of asking if the emotions of persocoms are real the question is Is it okay to love a persocom even if they are fake? The persocoms are limited to their devices and the human characters have to decide what that means to them. While not as prevalent as the conversation of emotion another aspect of the technology that I found interesting was the mechanical side of how the persocoms worked. Its clear that the bodies of the persocoms are not perfect. One arc in particular my favorite of the entire manga features a character who dealt with his persocoms failing systems which begins to develop as memory problems similar to alzheimers in humans. Not unlike humans persocoms are not immortal beings that will never falter. Each model is eventually outdated their software will become unsupported and their hardware can simply breakdown. Persocoms have an unspecified lifespan just as all modern technology does. If anything the persocoms feel more human than most fictional robots because of how flawed their bodies can be. As I mentioned before some of Chobits can come off as a little goofy and I cant deny itsome of it is a bit much. Obviously comedy plays a part in that but its irrelevant to the larger problem. My one major problem with Chobits is its technology can be totally nonsensical. Ranging from persocoms seemingly replacing computers for most people to a startup button being in a vagina some of the tech of this world is hard to take seriously. Of course the manga was released in 2000 a different time from today and should be taken with a grain of salt. However there is still a handful of technological ideas that made little sense even when publishing. This does not mean much in the grand scheme of things but it does occasionally pull me out of the reading experience. Giving a Wide Variety of Perspective The cast of Chobits is defined by the ways in which they develop the overarching purpose of the manga which is to explore the validity of loving a persocom. Likewise Chobits ventures into each characters perspective of what it means to love their relationships with persocoms and how that ties into the story of Hideki the protagonist and Chi his persocom. Any character that has an active role in the story has a new point of view to adda new way to understand the way we coexist with robots. Whether romantic or platonic each characters arc tackles a different problem. One character may struggle with their inferiority complex towards persocoms while another may have to cope with the reality of their persocoms technological limitations. Because each characters feelings are fleshed out the pros and cons of having relationships with persocoms are explored in a relatively satisfying way. This extends beyond the relationships between humans and persocoms however. The manga actively makes mention of the ways in which persocoms have changed relationships between people some of which are relevant to the various characters. Hideki notices on multiple occasions just how few people are without persocoms in public nearly everyone relies on a persocom to some extent. Although reliance on persocoms is becoming the social standard there is a darker underbelly to the existence of persocoms in a human society. One character for instance had previously gone through a divorce because their husband had become obsessed with their persocom. Chobits actively makes the effort to showcase why persocoms are both helpful to society and their uses but never ignores why they could be potentially dangerous to the wellbeing of human relationships. Each character tells their own story but the full picture comes across as cautiously optimistic towards robots becoming a part of their world. Realistic Ends to a Beautiful Story Chobits Should Not be Forgotten Personally I love Chobits. I see it as an underappreciated manga these days. Often forgotten about when discussing classic manga I wanted to attempt to give it a little more love. Is it as deep and complex as Ghost in the Shell? Is it a perfect masterpiece? Is it timeless unsubjected to changing technology? No no and no. Is it good? Absolutely. In the midst of its light fanservice and dumb comedy I think a lot of readers fail to see how compelling it can be. From its heartwarming romance to its engaging themes Chobits offers a multitude of reasons to read it even 21 years later.